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The Things I Do For Win - A Harsh Mistress
Aug 31 2012 04:05 PM |
clu
in Game of Thrones
Small Council The Things I Do For Win clu
Thanks everyone for your patience while I have been ill over the past two weeks. During that time I missed GenCon and a new chapter pack release! To make up for lost time I’m going over the Harsh Mistress box of goodies.Correct card evaluation comes from understanding mechanic interactions and game theory. “Great†cards at your disposal leads to winning games. It makes up one third of being a complete player. The other two phases are creating card synergy (deck building) and actually playing the game.
There are several rubrics used to grade cardboard and it’s important to find your own feel for the game. You also have to choose if you are looking at these cards in a vacuum or in the current environment. However, there are some inalienable values; gold cost higher than strength is bad, locations with a gold cost of more than one had better be amazing, and attachments probably aren’t good.
Rating System as judged in the current environment.
+ = Great
O = Playable in the right deck
- = Terrible
+ Maege Mormont (AHM)
Pay three, replaces itself, phenom.
- Hall of Dragons (AHM)
Too many resources to make this awesome.
+ Volantis Inn (AHM)
My god, more kneel for kneelers paradise!
- Pentoshi Manor (AHM)
Never give your opponent a choice, best case scenario? Give them free power.
o Watcher of the Nightfire (AHM)
Only makes it because of card draw and renown, but only better.
- The Nightfort (AHM)
Suck, when smuggler's cove is so much better.
- Ghost of Winterfell (AHM)
Two gold, one strength with a negative trait(s).
- Longship Red Jester (AHM)
Almost makes it but discarding the locations may be easier in Greyjoy.
o Captured Cog (AHM)
Super cool, chokes the deck with non-action dudes though.
o Maester Myles (AHM)
If it was 2 strength a solid +.
- Rhoynar Emissary (AHM)
Doesn't work.
- The Windblown (AHM)
Tooooo expensive.
o The Golden Company (AHM)
Makes it out of the doghouse due to other Targ support.
- Dragon Egg (AHM)
Not good.
o Great Pyramid of Meereen (AHM)
Neat resource spread.
o Myr (AHM)
I love these locations.
+ Tyrosh (AHM)
I like playing Castellan out of house.
+ Much and More (AHM)
Replaces itself, free to play, nutty good.
- Men of Honor (AHM)
Bad stats.
- Men of Duty (AHM)
Better plots out there!
26 Comments
Much and more may not have a gold cost, but giving your opponent a card, even if it is the worst of 4, is still a cost.
Ghost of Winterfell is deadly intrigue for 2 gold. Ask the Lannisters how good that is.
Pentoshi Manor will never be "free power" because if its use won't help you, don't freaking use it.
Hall of dragons. . .yeah, because Targaryen totally doesn't want to give Danny the dragon trait. . . Not at all.
Pentoshi Manor is freaking amazing. No idea why you think it's terrible. It takes characters or keywords completely out of a challenge. Even if the sacrifice is giving that character a free power, use something else to get rid of it or to do something with it(like Lion's Gate).
I think those plots have a place in the right deck for finishing an opponent off with a rush attack on the first challenge.
I am a big fan of Pentoshi Manor, but you do need some way to deal with the power they are accumulating. Luckily, Lannister has quite a few such options, like Slander and Lies and Lion's Gate.
Hall of Dragons is fun, but two gold for the location plus an influence for each use is quite a bit of cost. There are some decks which will want this, but remember Clu is worried about overall efficiency....not the most efficient character, especially seeing as how Dragons aren't a usual Joust archetype.
I am experimenting with Much and More in my current deck....so far, I like it. But it is a PBtT deck, so hand control is easier for me.
Possibly. Even if that is it, I'd much rather read what he thinks of the card. If he doesn't think the word is supposed to be "eligible" then God save us all. :-)
I appreciate the feedback and look forward to more opinions!
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS), Sunset Sea (KotS),
Bay of Ice (KotS) etc.
Cards like this always get hyped in every cardgame and after about two months people realize that these cards actually aren't good.
Yes I knew why pentoshi manor was given minus
Then the card itself combos with Rule by Decree.
And the odds should be pretty good that the card you take will be much more useful than the card you give them in a particular situation.
Essentially, you're banking on your opponent having a deck that contains such bad or situational cards, that the very limited search for your own deck will give you a net opportunity gain large enough to offset the card disadvantage. Does it have a place in a deck built around a very effective combo as a deck thinner? Of course. But that would still only make it a 'o' on clu's own scale, not a '+'.
Looking at this from a cynically Jaime perspective: If your deck has cards that you wouldn't want to get (via your opponents' choice through Much and More), then your deck just isn't optimized correctly and needs more work.
If both decks are constructed equally there is an inherent blah feeling, but, you get more bang for your play than your opponent. If you are going second you can give them a character while you sift through yours. If you have ten or more events to be triggered during the challenge phase (or ambush) you can bring action to your hand while giving them a non-effective card.
Games only last three (unlikely) to nine (I love control decks) turns. Let's say the average game is five to six turns long. Creating win now opportunities is huge. AGOT is a very swingy game. Producing more killer turns ends games faster. Much and More isn't going to single handedly win you games. How you use it pushes the balance more in your favor.
Does it make this an auto-include? I don't know. More play testing will tell. I'm guessing it isn't because ideally you every card you have is a monster. But most decks will create a better game state after you flip this rock star.
Dropping zero cost limited locations is really cool. There won't be that many instances when you can use of that. Putting the Egg on characters means they could just go away after a military challenge. All of this is contingent on them not running attachment removal (darn tin link...). Plus, you have to run influence to make it relevant.
A card that leaves many variables to not be consistent is a negative effect. It will clog up your draw while trying to piece together the super sweet move you want to execute. I have a couple ideas but it doesn't even come close to making it into many decks.
However, you first have to:
Too many variables.
Greyjoy gets another boon with Sunset Sea. There is nothing more fun than attacking with a sick stealthy steam of characters and claim two than backing it up with kneel control.
True, the game has no in-game definition of "eligible," but the English language does (and it is reflected on both Coldhands (RotO) and Before the Black Walls (VD)). It is (normally) a simple check: can this character participate in this challenge? Usually this will be a standing character with the corresponding challenge icon (that has not been bypassed by stealth when defending).
Some instances to consider:
The Black Cells (TftRK) will normally create non-eligibility because most characters need to kneel to be declared as an attacker or defender. However, characters like The Red Viper (PotS), Knight of Flowers (SaS), Ser Rodrik Cassel (Core), and Ranger of Winter (TWoW) can get around this because that requirement for participation in a challenge does not need to be met (as per their character ability).
Losing icons through Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) or any other icon loss effect will normally prevent a character from being eligible as an attacker or defender. However, cards like Ser Balon Swann (TWH) and Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) get around the requirement of having the specific icon (also the standing portion) because they specifically say "(when knelt) these guys can defend X" - having the icon doesn't matter.
Some cards like Restrict and Restrain (MotA) create a lasting challenges phase effect on a bunch of characters that say they cannot participate (and therefore wouldn't be eligible).
Now, the FAQ outlines the framework for challenge declaration as
1. Active Player declares challenge type and opponent.
2. Active Player kneels attacking characters.
So as soon as we know what kind of challenge is being initiated, we know what characters that we have who are eligible to participate based on icons and all the other passive effects and rules in the game.
We don't have a definition of fifteen as "greater than fourteen by one element of the integer and less sixteen by one element of the integer" but we can all still count our power.
Hi, welcome to House Targeryen, hope you enjoy your stay. Requiring the card, the influence and the opportunity sounds like 50% of all Targ cards. Nothing new here, lets move along.
The Trait manipulation is of secondary importance. Its fun but its here for the Deadly. There are only 5 locations in game that provide Deadly. Stark has none, the other two for Targ are trait specific. Out of Targ, its fairly easy to find a situation where giving the Dragon or Dothraki trait is helpful.
The Windblown (AHM). My idea of a good Martell deck comes with loads of unique characters, Martell has so many great uniques, like the PotS Areo Hotah, and PS Red Viper, with compliments like Ellaria sand, Arriane Martell, and Yronwood, Drinkwater, the list goes on. If you have even 2 or 3 of these, the Windblown actually become one of Martell's cheapest and most effective army option, next to
House Dayne Reserves (PotS) I play a very reactionary deck, albeit against friends / family, but my goal is to make people regret every decision to strike out at me, and once I've built up, The Windblown will allow me to whip them back like currs
In a vacuum I think it's fine and it does work well with A Game of Cyvasse and Quentyn.
Can you please elaborate on what you mean by it being bad in every card game that has used such a mechanic? I don't know what you mean.
Then the question is, did your opponent use it against you correctly? Did you have keywords he wanted to get out of certain challenges? Did it help him beat you in any challenges that made a difference?
Edit:
I think you are talking about Rhoynar Emissary because part of your comment didn't seem like it made sense in relationship to Pentoshi Manor after I re-read it.